Hemel Hempstead Cycling Club

Hi folks,

Tonights event attracted a big field; 30 riders, many of them looking for a good ride to pick up the club Handicap 10 Trophy. The weather wasn't great, but wasn't bad - a tough headwind out but that meant a nice fast return and it wasn't cold. We were also back on the full length course again after the roadworks of the last 3 weeks.

Just to give a little insight to the handicaps: each club member is given a handicap allowance and that allowance time is deducted from their actual time to give their handicap time. If everyone rides to the time the handicapper expects of them at their optimum, then everyone ends up with the same handicap time - and that is based upon a handicap time of 21 minutes exactly. We leave the trophy event until towards the end of the year to give the riders a chance to settle into the series and the handicapper has a good chance of getting the times tweaked as well as he can. However all the tens are handicaped anyway, and we award points according to the placings the same as on scratch - see the tables each week to see that.

So, what happened? As it's the focus on handicaps then we'll start with that. The winner was Simon Hemington with a new fastest time for a few years, and a handicap time of 20:20. Ian Baynes has improved consistantly throughout the year, confounding the handicapper most weeks and he did so again to come 2nd with a handicap time of 20:46. In third place and very miffed that anyone beat him on handicap was... well me. Paul Thomson. Handicap time of 20:59 meant I was almost spot on with my optimum time and on a toughish day thought that would be good enough, and after a week heavy riding in the mountains of southern France to boost performance... well it wasn't enough. Oh well. Always next year! In equal 4th place with a handicap time of 21:14 was Stuart Simmonds and Steve Roffe - Steve is also one who has been improving all year and backed that up again today. Stuart too is finding some of his best form. Rounding out the top 6 was Helen Reynolds with her time of 21:19, so just 5 seconds down.

Fastest on the day was Luke Clarke (Team Milton Keynes, beating Jonathan Shubert (Verulam CC) by just 4 seconds, with brother Ross Clarke (Team Milton Keynes) a further 19 seconds back. Father Steve Clarke came in a distant 4th and Simon Hemington the first club rider home in 5th. Ex member Mark Jervis (Python RT) was 6th on his first ride of the year.

Thanks go to Bob Clark for the timekeeping, assisted by Dave Rogers. With John Dunne & Dave Wilson for the marshalling.

Paul